NHS coronavirus phone app will reveal if you’ve been near someone who has killer bug & could be key to lifting lockdown
NHS tech experts are helping develop a phone app which will reveal if you've been near someone who has coronavirus.
It will allow mobile phones to trace users who have come into contact with sufferers and alert them to get tested for the killer infection.
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The Sunday Times reports ministers believe the tech initiative is key to lifting the lockdown as quickly as possible.
NHSX - the health services's tech wing - is now working at "breakneck speed"with tech giants Apple and Google, sources have reported.
"We believe this is important in helping the country to return to normality," one Whitehall insider revealed.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is now reportedly looking at ways to get people to install the app - as at least 60 per cent need to for it to work efficiently.
One idea being considered is allowing those who do to resume normal work and home life, say the reports.
It's already been revealed Apple and Google are teaming up to develop phones which will reveal if you have been within two metres of someone who has the virus.
The powerful pair - who operate 99 per cent of the world's smartphones - plan to add new software to make it easier to track down people who may have been infected.
The 'contact tracing' will play a vital role in managing the deadly virus, according to health experts.
The system will work by emitting unique Bluetooth signals and then phones within around two metres can record information about their encounters.
Those who test positive for coronavirus can then opt to send an encrypted list of the phones they came near to onto Apple and Google.
The system will then trigger alerts to those who have potentially been exposed to the killer infection.
Medics would then need to confirm that a person has tested positive for COVID-19 before they can send on the data.
The rare collaboration should accelerate usage of apps which aim to get potentially infected individuals into testing or quarantine more quickly and reliably.
The logs will be scrambled to keep infected individuals' data anonymous.
However, to be effective the system would require millions to opt into the tech and therefore trust the companies' security safeguards.
Apple and Google said their contact tracing system will not track GPS location.
"With Apple and Google, you get all the public health functions you need with a decentralised and privacy-friendly app," said Michael Veale, a University College London lecturer involved in European contact tracing system DP3T.
The companies said they started developing the tech two weeks ago to streamline technical differences between Apple's iPhones and Google's Android.
"To their credit, Apple and Google have announced an approach that appears to mitigate the worst privacy and centralization risks," said Jennifer Granick, cybersecurity counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
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Apple and Google plan to release software tools in mid-May to contact tracing apps that they and public health authorities approve.
Google said the tools and updates would not be available where its services are blocked, such as in China or on unofficial Android devices.
Apple will distribute the technology as an update to its iPhone operating system.